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I believe that there are still a lot of interesting, non-commercial websites out there. I just can‘t find them anymore. SEO dominates literally every search I t

I believe that there are still a lot of interesting, non-commercial websites out there. I just can‘t find them anymore. SEO dominates literally every search I try. I also tried Bing, DuckDuckGo, you.com and many more - same result. I think a search engine that excludes every website with google analytics, ad networks and amazon affiliate links would be great. Anyone know of such a thing?

wt__ 3y ago
Have you tried Kagi? It's subscription and doesn't really do what you suggest, but it's results are good, you can prioritise and block specific sites and they have a project called Kagi Small Web: https://blog.kagi.com/small-web https://blog.kagi.com/small-web
- gmiller123456 3y ago
  Been trying Kagi for a few months now. Sadly, I don't notice much difference from Google. For example, this past weekend I tried to work on learning some WebGPU stuff. The search results were filled with WebGL, WGPU, Three.js, Babylon, etc. stuff. The page might have contained "WebGPU" in a sidebar or something similar, but weren't about WebGPU at all.
azornathogron 3y ago
You may want https://search.marginalia.nu/ https://search.marginalia.nu/ It gets mentioned here on HN quite a lot.
- prox 3y ago
  What a magnificent search engine, love it. It brings back those wandering days of link clicking reading about people and their passions. No stupid “and here’s where you sign up” and annoying things like that.
- ghosty141 3y ago
  Really missing a way to sort by recency, that would make it far more useful for me.
  - marginalia_nu 3y ago
    Easy enough. Added a toggle for showing results that are <2 years old. May need to tune it a bit I guess (maybe 5 years). Dunno if it's actually useful, we'll have to see. I'm not one to shy away from feature creep though, and a lot of people are requesting these sorts of things...
    - ghosty141 3y ago
      wow, thanks for the quick action!
- hgs3 3y ago
  Wow. I see this as proof web surfing died because the Big Search Engines prefer to promote commercial entities over individual interests.
  - pixl97 3y ago
    I can only imagine of Google faced the full firehose of their search traffic at your blog that most people would go broke paying their web bill. This said, I do think the bigger issue is we have pretty much 2 big search engines so there is no real competition in the market. And that those search engines are also ad companies and have a vested interest in showing ads.
    - over_bridge 3y ago
      I wonder if Google could build some custom variants of their search. That way they can use their underlying tech but reskin it to bias towards different things - eg favor local results, or scholarly, short form, or video/audio/text. Apply a lens or filter to results so we aren't all being served the same bland concoction of links. Sure AI could do this on a personal level but communities are built around shared experiences so we might see some major labelled variants emerge that shape new communities. Each could even have an internal product owner trying to beat the others. Its a simulation of competition which might drive some innovation from Google once again (assuming no real competition is breaking through that market domination anytime soon) The internet is the way it is largely because of Google's algorithm and people shaping their content to appease it. If they allowed several to exist, we could have several internets also existing without the need for a new walled garden.
      - pixl97 3y ago
        As for your first question, they do that with local search. But, also as an answer to your first question, no, there is no money in this that will show up on the next quarters income sheet. As it is, the biggest way to deal with Google is regulations of breaking up search engines and ad networks. As long as Google controls the money making on the internet they'll be near unbeatable.
pegasus 3y ago
search.marginalia.nu is one option. Apparently Kagi also has a "Small Web" option. Check out this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38821248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38821248
LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
Have you heard of https://www.marginalia.nu/ https://www.marginalia.nu/ in general, and especially the https://search.marginalia.nu/ https://search.marginalia.nu/ from there?
pkdpic 3y ago
That's an excellent idea, sounds like it might be possible (ironically) as a chrome extension? Someone should make it but more importantly someone should come up with a good name for it ;)
yreg 3y ago
> I believe that there are still a lot of interesting, non-commercial websites out there. Surely there are more than ever. Just difficult to find, as you say.
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  Yeah, I think it's noteworthy that the times in history we view as high water marks in terms of personal websites are also the times in history we had really good aggregators/navigation tools for personal websites. I think in absolute terms we aren't significantly worse off than in the '90s when "surfing the web" was so big there were printed magazines dedicated to the passtime. On the flip side, it doesn't matter how many great websites there are if you can't find them. If we want a thriving ecosystem of smaller and more personal websites, then it needs discovery tools. My efforts with Marginalia Search, wiby.me, ooh.directory, neocities; it's all a decent start, but I think we can do even better.
  - nonrandomstring 3y ago
    You're (maybe) inadvertently on to something there, > there were printed magazines dedicated to the passtime. 1. (1) pastime, interest, pursuit -- (a diversion that occupies one's time and thoughts (usually pleasantly); I think what some of us are nostalgic for is when the "Web" was a way to pass the time. For many it was a cultural curiosity first, then an entertainment source. At some point it pivoted to being work. It turned into filing taxes, shopping for insurance, and a place for maintaining a "professional profile". From what I see of social media a great many people make it into "work" of a kind. In this metamorphosis we somehow made the silly web serious and the serious web silly. Now nobody knows the difference and so the headspace of "passtime" has itself sort of vanished.
zozbot234 3y ago
https://wilby.me/ https://wilby.me/ does that. But back in the day all the "interesting, non-commercial websites" would be listed in a curated web directory arranged by subject, and we're still missing that. There is an emerging practice of niche subject-specific "awesome-lists" but these are no substitute.
- acegopher 3y ago
  Are you sure that's the correct URL? That site is a near-default Wordpress site with a single Hello World post from 2018.
  - lurking15 3y ago
    I believe he means to say https://wiby.me https://wiby.me
blackhaj7 3y ago
Agreed that SEO garbage has made it very hard to find good websites
HeckFeck 3y ago
They're still there. When I stumble upon them I take note and gather them into this web gallery. Well Made Web, the old town of the Internet: https://wmw.thran.uk https://wmw.thran.uk

wt__ 3y ago

Have you tried Kagi? It's subscription and doesn't really do what you suggest, but it's results are good, you can prioritise and block specific sites and they have a project called Kagi Small Web: https://blog.kagi.com/small-web https://blog.kagi.com/small-web

gmiller123456 3y ago
Been trying Kagi for a few months now. Sadly, I don't notice much difference from Google. For example, this past weekend I tried to work on learning some WebGPU stuff. The search results were filled with WebGL, WGPU, Three.js, Babylon, etc. stuff. The page might have contained "WebGPU" in a sidebar or something similar, but weren't about WebGPU at all.

azornathogron 3y ago

You may want https://search.marginalia.nu/ https://search.marginalia.nu/ It gets mentioned here on HN quite a lot.

prox 3y ago
What a magnificent search engine, love it. It brings back those wandering days of link clicking reading about people and their passions. No stupid “and here’s where you sign up” and annoying things like that.
ghosty141 3y ago
Really missing a way to sort by recency, that would make it far more useful for me.
- marginalia_nu 3y ago
  Easy enough. Added a toggle for showing results that are <2 years old. May need to tune it a bit I guess (maybe 5 years). Dunno if it's actually useful, we'll have to see. I'm not one to shy away from feature creep though, and a lot of people are requesting these sorts of things...
  - ghosty141 3y ago
    wow, thanks for the quick action!
hgs3 3y ago
Wow. I see this as proof web surfing died because the Big Search Engines prefer to promote commercial entities over individual interests.
- pixl97 3y ago
  I can only imagine of Google faced the full firehose of their search traffic at your blog that most people would go broke paying their web bill. This said, I do think the bigger issue is we have pretty much 2 big search engines so there is no real competition in the market. And that those search engines are also ad companies and have a vested interest in showing ads.
  - over_bridge 3y ago
    I wonder if Google could build some custom variants of their search. That way they can use their underlying tech but reskin it to bias towards different things - eg favor local results, or scholarly, short form, or video/audio/text. Apply a lens or filter to results so we aren't all being served the same bland concoction of links. Sure AI could do this on a personal level but communities are built around shared experiences so we might see some major labelled variants emerge that shape new communities. Each could even have an internal product owner trying to beat the others. Its a simulation of competition which might drive some innovation from Google once again (assuming no real competition is breaking through that market domination anytime soon) The internet is the way it is largely because of Google's algorithm and people shaping their content to appease it. If they allowed several to exist, we could have several internets also existing without the need for a new walled garden.
    - pixl97 3y ago
      As for your first question, they do that with local search. But, also as an answer to your first question, no, there is no money in this that will show up on the next quarters income sheet. As it is, the biggest way to deal with Google is regulations of breaking up search engines and ad networks. As long as Google controls the money making on the internet they'll be near unbeatable.

pegasus 3y ago

search.marginalia.nu is one option. Apparently Kagi also has a "Small Web" option. Check out this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38821248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38821248

LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago

Have you heard of https://www.marginalia.nu/ https://www.marginalia.nu/ in general, and especially the https://search.marginalia.nu/ https://search.marginalia.nu/ from there?

pkdpic 3y ago

That's an excellent idea, sounds like it might be possible (ironically) as a chrome extension? Someone should make it but more importantly someone should come up with a good name for it ;)

yreg 3y ago

> I believe that there are still a lot of interesting, non-commercial websites out there. Surely there are more than ever. Just difficult to find, as you say.

marginalia_nu 3y ago
Yeah, I think it's noteworthy that the times in history we view as high water marks in terms of personal websites are also the times in history we had really good aggregators/navigation tools for personal websites. I think in absolute terms we aren't significantly worse off than in the '90s when "surfing the web" was so big there were printed magazines dedicated to the passtime. On the flip side, it doesn't matter how many great websites there are if you can't find them. If we want a thriving ecosystem of smaller and more personal websites, then it needs discovery tools. My efforts with Marginalia Search, wiby.me, ooh.directory, neocities; it's all a decent start, but I think we can do even better.
- nonrandomstring 3y ago
  You're (maybe) inadvertently on to something there, > there were printed magazines dedicated to the passtime. 1. (1) pastime, interest, pursuit -- (a diversion that occupies one's time and thoughts (usually pleasantly); I think what some of us are nostalgic for is when the "Web" was a way to pass the time. For many it was a cultural curiosity first, then an entertainment source. At some point it pivoted to being work. It turned into filing taxes, shopping for insurance, and a place for maintaining a "professional profile". From what I see of social media a great many people make it into "work" of a kind. In this metamorphosis we somehow made the silly web serious and the serious web silly. Now nobody knows the difference and so the headspace of "passtime" has itself sort of vanished.

zozbot234 3y ago

https://wilby.me/ https://wilby.me/ does that. But back in the day all the "interesting, non-commercial websites" would be listed in a curated web directory arranged by subject, and we're still missing that. There is an emerging practice of niche subject-specific "awesome-lists" but these are no substitute.

acegopher 3y ago
Are you sure that's the correct URL? That site is a near-default Wordpress site with a single Hello World post from 2018.
- lurking15 3y ago
  I believe he means to say https://wiby.me https://wiby.me

blackhaj7 3y ago

Agreed that SEO garbage has made it very hard to find good websites

HeckFeck 3y ago

They're still there. When I stumble upon them I take note and gather them into this web gallery. Well Made Web, the old town of the Internet: https://wmw.thran.uk https://wmw.thran.uk